Sir-Mix-A-Lot

I just thought I would share my 2 cents on mixing tracks, since for the majority of the time, the real work comes from the engineer. Let's be serious, for someone to sit there and get the sound just right and satisfy the artist, the producer, and the a&r's is just down right skillful. So as I sit in my personal studio mixing tracks for my upcoming mixtape entitled, "City Lights" which will feature Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne, Drake, and 50 Cent, I start to realize that no matter how great your equipment is, mixing takes time. For instance, let's say you have a condenser mic and don't have a pre-amp and you're using sonar. No matter how great your mic is or what plug-ins you have, it means nothing without actually getting in there and listening to every bit of the track. That's right Ha-Styliens, that means listening to every dub, adlib, and effect by itself and mixing it. Now of course, I know you know people that just don't mix and just pretty much press their material up and distribute the material as is. But just imagine how much greater their sound would be if they took the time to mix the track. Its a good idea for when trying to mix a hip hop track to make sure that the 808's (bass kick) and the bass line (bass melody) is hitting, and I mean hard. If the track doesn't have any bounce to it, you just pretty much ruined your first impression. I don't care how pop the song is, if your name starts with Lil' or Young you need to make sure you have a track that will have they heads ringin (Dr. Dre). When I recorded the demo for "1899", the song was lacking as far as a full sound. However, the DJ I was working with knew that it needed that 'hit' and when we got to a professional studio it sounded great before we even got it mixed by a trained engineer. Also, a tip I learned from an old roommate of mine, try to dub your vocals and pan one track to the left and the other to the right for a fuller more surround sound feel. That's all the tips that I'm giving out tonight.

Mixing is a key to a great track. Go experiment and most importantly

HAVE FUN!